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Archi Automate User Guide

User Guide

Updated for version 27.6 · June 2026.

Archi Automate is the AI automation layer for AEC. It connects Claude, GPT/Codex, Gemini, or any MCP-capable AI client to your live Revit, Rhino, and Archicad models — and to vendor-neutral openBIM (IFC) files — through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). You query, analyse, validate, and automate your models in plain language, voice, or images.

Version 27.6 turns openBIM into a complete, vendor-neutral suite. One headless connector reads and authors IFC (single models or a federation of disciplines), validates them against the buildingSMART IDS standard — and can author new IDS from plain language — runs clash detection and quantity take-off, estimates embodied carbon, renders snapshots the assistant can actually see, exports COBie and glTF, and reads or authors BCF coordination issues. It can even turn validation failures or clashes straight into a BCF issue set — each with a picture — in a single step.

One AI conversation can reach every connected host at once, so the assistant can carry context between programs — read from one tool and create in another. All write operations are policy-gated and audited, and a desktop dashboard (the Hub) lets you monitor every bridge and edit the guardrails.

Getting started

What you need

To use Archi Automate you need three things:

  • One or more supported host applications installed — Revit, Rhino, or Archicad — and/or IFC files for the openBIM connector (which needs no CAD application at all).
  • An MCP-capable AI client — Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Cline, JetBrains AI Assistant, or any other MCP client.
  • A licence — or simply start the 14-day full-featured trial, which runs automatically on first use with no key and covers every host.

For reliable AI-composed operations we recommend a capable model tier — Claude Opus 4.8 (High) or GPT-5.5 (High) or better. Voice input is available wherever your AI client provides it.

How it works

Archi Automate runs quietly in the background. A single MCP server presents one tool surface to your AI client and routes each request to the right host bridge. Tools are namespaced per host (revit_*, rhino_*, archicad_*, ifc_*, bcf_*), and a cross-host discovery tool lists every running session at once.

  • For Revit and Rhino, the AI composes governed operations at runtime across the host's own API — it is not limited to a fixed list of commands.
  • For Archicad, the AI drives a first-party add-on that exposes a curated, governed set of read and write commands.
  • For openBIM, a headless connector opens IFC files — or federates several disciplines — in memory and provides the whole openBIM suite: IFC read/author, IDS validation and authoring, clash detection, quantity take-off, embodied-carbon estimation, visual snapshots, COBie/glTF export, and BCF coordination — independent of any CAD vendor.

No host adds a ribbon button; the bridges run silently. Interoperability between programs is handled by the AI in the conversation — Archi Automate does not sync data between applications behind your back.

Supported hosts & AI clients

Hosts

HostVersions / formatsHow it connects
Autodesk Revit2025, 2026, 2027In-Revit add-in (installed for the Revit years on your machine). Restart Revit to load it.
Rhino (McNeel)8Rhino plug-in installed via Yak. Restart Rhino to load it.
Graphisoft Archicad29A resident bridge plus a native add-on inside Archicad. Restart Archicad to load the add-on.
openBIM (IFC · IDS · BCF + analysis)IFC2x3 / IFC4 / IFC4x1 / IFC4x3 models (.ifc, .ifcxml, .ifczip; single or federated), IDS specs (.ids), BCF files (.bcfzip); exports COBie (.xlsx) and glTF (.glb)Headless, vendor-neutral file connector — no CAD app and no host licence needed to run. Starts on demand. An open IFC file (or a federation of several) is a "session".

You can run several host sessions at once, and a single AI conversation can target each of them. openBIM works on IFC exported from any authoring tool — Revit, Archicad, Rhino, MicroStation, Tekla and more — and can federate several discipline models into one session for cross-discipline checks.

AI clients

Archi Automate is a standard MCP server, so it works with any MCP-capable AI client. The Hub gives one-click connection for eight clients and a guided manual setup for a ninth:

  • One-click: Claude (Desktop & Code), OpenAI Codex, Cursor, VS Code (Copilot agent), Windsurf, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Cline.
  • Manual snippet: JetBrains AI Assistant.
  • Any other current or future MCP client connects with the same copy-paste configuration.

Installation

One installer, all hosts

A single elevated install installs the shared components and a bridge for each host detected on your machine. Installation requires administrator rights (it writes to Program Files and, for Archicad, to the Archicad Add-Ons folder). Close any open host applications before installing.

  • Revit — the add-in is registered automatically for the Revit years found on the machine. Restart Revit to load it.
  • Rhino — the plug-in is registered as a Yak package. Restart Rhino to load it (the Hub can also run this from the Bridges page).
  • Archicad — the native add-on is copied into the Archicad 29 Add-Ons folder (restart Archicad to load it). The resident bridge starts on demand the first time you use an Archicad tool.
  • openBIM — nothing to install per host; the connector is headless and starts on demand the first time an IFC, IDS, or BCF tool is used.

Connect your AI client

After installation, open the Hub's LLMs page and click Connect next to your client. Archi Automate writes the connection entry into that client's configuration for you (per-user, backed up first, merged without overwriting your other settings). Restart the client afterwards. For step-by-step setup and a copy-paste snippet per client, use the Hub's Help page.

Trial and licences

  • Trial — on first run without a key, a 14-day full-featured trial starts automatically and covers all hosts.
  • Desktop licence — single-machine activation (perpetual or subscription).
  • Floating licence — one seat checked out from your company pool, shared across hosts and released on shutdown.

One licence covers you across Revit, Rhino, Archicad, and openBIM at the same time. For silent and managed deployment, see the Silent Installer Guide.

The Hub

The Hub is a small desktop dashboard with a left navigation rail of four pages: Bridges, LLMs, Guardrails, and Help. It detects and manages every host bridge and AI client, edits the guardrail policy, and shows live session status.

Bridges

Shows a card for each host — Revit, Rhino, Archicad, and an openBIM (IFC) card with the buildingSMART mark — plus overall Connection and Licence tiles and a Sessions grid.

  • Green — running and the bridge is live (a session is actually being served).
  • Amber — installed and configured, but no session is being served right now.
  • Grey — host not installed.

Each card has an action where one applies — for example Configure to register the bridge. Revit is set up by the installer and Rhino via Yak. The Archicad and openBIM bridges are out-of-process and start on demand — the first relevant AI request spins them up — so a card can show the host present with the bridge not yet running. The openBIM card carries the buildingSMART mark and surfaces its capabilities: IFC, IDS, and BCF, plus analysis (clash, quantity take-off, embodied carbon) and export (COBie, glTF).

Hub Bridges page showing Revit, Rhino, Archicad and openBIM (IFC) host cards with live session status

The Bridges page: live status for every host bridge, including the openBIM (IFC · IDS · BCF) card, plus the Sessions grid.

LLMs

Where you connect AI clients. Each of the eight one-click clients (plus JetBrains) shows its configured/running status with a one-click Connect that writes the Archi Automate entry into that client's config. Restart the client after connecting.

Hub LLMs page showing one-click connect for Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Cline and JetBrains

The LLMs page: one-click connection for eight AI clients, plus JetBrains and any other MCP client.

Guardrails

A graphical editor for the guardrail policy (see Guardrails & settings): execution mode, a code-safety toggle, a cap on how many elements one operation can touch, a block-deletes guard, and audit logging — with a read-only view of the full policy and its file path. Changes save to the local policy and apply on the next request, with no host restart.

Hub Guardrails page with execution mode, safety limits, activity log and the policy file

The Guardrails page: choose what the AI may do, set safety limits, and review the policy.

Help

Per-client setup guides — status, Connect, Open config folder, a native-format snippet, and step-by-step instructions — plus a short "how it works & troubleshooting" card.

Hub Help page with per-client setup instructions and configuration snippets

The Help page: connect each assistant, with a copy-paste snippet and instructions.

Workflows

Ask a question about a model

Works for any host.

  1. Open your AI client with Archi Automate connected.
  2. Ask in plain language — e.g. "How many rooms are on Level 2?" (Revit), "List the layers in this Rhino file", or "How many walls are in this Archicad project?"
  3. The AI discovers the session, calls the right tool, and answers from the live model.

If several sessions are open, ask the AI to list and select one. If the host is busy or showing a dialog, you may get a fast "not ready" signal — wait briefly and retry.

Work across programs in one conversation

Use this when you run more than one host and want the AI to carry context between them.

  1. Have Revit, Rhino, and/or Archicad open with their bridges loaded.
  2. Ask the AI to list all sessions so it can see every host at once.
  3. Direct a cross-host task — e.g. "Read the wall layout from the open Rhino model and create matching walls in Archicad," or "Summarise this Revit model's room schedule, then check the Archicad project for the same rooms."

The AI reads from one host, carries the data, and acts on another. Each individual call still targets one host and one document.

Automate a multi-step task (Revit / Rhino)

  1. Describe the task in natural language.
  2. The AI composes an operation against the host API. In Preview (dry-run) it shows the plan first.
  3. Approve, and it runs inside a managed transaction (Revit) or a single undo record (Rhino), with automatic rollback on error.

Create or edit Archicad elements

  1. Set the guardrail execution mode to Allow changes (Archicad writes are blocked in read-only/preview modes and cannot be previewed).
  2. Ask the AI to create, move, or delete elements — it uses the first-party add-on commands.
  3. Changes live in the open project until you save.

Validate an IFC model against an IDS

Use this to check a model from any authoring tool against a buildingSMART IDS for compliance, handover, or data-completeness.

  1. Ask the AI to open the .ifc file (the open file becomes the session).
  2. Ask it to validate against your .ids specification.
  3. You get a pass/fail breakdown per requirement, and the AI can summarise the failures and the elements responsible.
  4. Optionally remediate (below) and re-validate.

Extract, audit, or remediate an IFC model

  1. Open the IFC file.
  2. Read and query — collect elements by type, read property sets and quantities, or ask for anything bespoke (quantity take-off, spatial containment, COBie-style asset data, missing-property audits).
  3. To fix or author, set the mode to Preview or Allow changes, then ask the AI to fill missing properties, fix classifications, create or edit entities, or start a new IFC from scratch. Preview runs the change and rolls it back so you can confirm before committing.
  4. Save to persist to disk.

Read, triage, and author BCF coordination issues

  1. Ask the AI to open a .bcfzip from any tool (Solibri, BIMcollab, Navisworks, Revit, Archicad).
  2. Triage in plain language — "Summarise open issues by assignee," "Which topics are unresolved?"
  3. To author: set the mode to Allow changes (BCF writes are not previewable), create or open a container, add topics (Issue / Clash / Request) with priority, assignee and the referenced elements — each topic gets an embedded snapshot and camera of those elements automatically — add comments, then save a .bcfzip anyone can open.

Validate → coordinate in one step

The standout openBIM workflow: turn automated QA straight into team coordination.

  1. Open the model (exported from any host).
  2. Ask the AI to validate it against your IDS and, for every failed requirement, create a BCF topic referencing the non-compliant elements — each with an embedded snapshot and camera — saved as a .bcfzip.
  3. Hand the .bcfzip to the team — every failure is now a trackable coordination issue that opens straight to the problem in any BCF viewer.

Full QA pipeline: export from a live host → open the IFC → validate → produce the BCF issues and a report. Remediation loop: validate → see what failed → fix the data → re-validate → save.

See the model — visual snapshots

The assistant can render the model and actually look at it.

  1. Open (or federate) the IFC, then ask the AI to "show me" the model — or a subset.
  2. It renders a snapshot (iso, top, front, or side; optionally only specific elements) and the picture comes back as an image the assistant can reason over.
  3. Pair it with a check — "render only the walls that failed the fire-rating IDS" or "show me the elements that clashed."

Coordinate clashes across disciplines

Federate → clash → BCF, all in one conversation.

  1. Ask the AI to federate the architectural, structural, and MEP IFCs into one session.
  2. Run clash detection for hard interferences (with overlap volume) or soft clearance violations between disciplines.
  3. Author BCF issues for the clashes — each with an embedded snapshot — and save a .bcfzip for the team.

Quantity take-off & embodied carbon

  1. Ask for a quantity take-off — a count/volume bill of quantities by type and material (federation-aware), comparing geometry volume against authored IFC base quantities.
  2. Ask for an embodied-carbon estimate (EN 15978 / EN 15804 A1–A3) with hotspots and an honest coverage report; pass the gross floor area for kg CO₂e/m², and choose live Ökobaudat EPDs for EPD-grade factors and optional whole-life stages.
  3. Optionally write the chosen EPDs back onto the model's materials (previewable before you commit).

Carbon figures are estimates with a coverage report, not a certified LCA — EPD-grade results use the live Ökobaudat source (online).

Author a compliance check from plain language

  1. Ask the AI to search the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) to ground your requirement in authoritative classification codes.
  2. Have it author a schema-valid IDS from your plain-language requirement (proven by round-trip), and optionally validate the open model in the same step.
  3. Or start from the bundled sample IDS library and validate against one of those. A schema/EXPRESS health check confirms the IFC file itself is well-formed.

Produce handover deliverables

  • Export a COBie spreadsheet (.xlsx) for FM handover.
  • Export glTF (.glb) that any web or desktop 3D viewer can open.
  • Fill or fix classification references (Uniclass / OmniClass / bSDD) before handover.

Guardrails & settings

One global policy governs every host. You edit it on the Hub's Guardrails page; changes apply on the next request with no host restart.

Execution modes

  • Read only (default) — the AI can read and analyse any model but cannot change anything. The safest setting.
  • Preview changes (dry-run) — the AI composes the operation and shows exactly what would change, then rolls it back; nothing is written until you commit. Supported for Revit, Rhino, and openBIM model edits (IFC authoring, classification, EPD write-back).
  • Allow changes — write operations are applied. Required for Archicad writes, and for openBIM file-writing tools — saving IFC, exporting COBie/glTF, and all BCF writes — which apply directly and cannot be previewed.

Safety limits

  • Code-safety — AI-composed operations (Revit / Rhino / IFC) are screened against a configurable deny-list before they run. This is defence-in-depth, not a sandbox.
  • Max elements per operation — a cap so a single action can't touch your whole model at once.
  • Block deletes — a hard guard against element deletion.
  • Category limits — restrict which categories the AI may touch.
  • Audit log — a record of every request, kept on this computer for review and compliance.
  • Timeout & readiness — long-running requests time out at a configurable limit, and a request to a busy host is abandoned rather than run late.

An optional company overlay can override and lock selected settings across a team, enforced even offline.

Troubleshooting

A host shows no session

Cause: the host isn't running, the bridge isn't loaded (host not restarted after install), or — for Archicad — the resident bridge or the add-on isn't present.

Fix: confirm the host is open; check the Hub's Bridges page for the host card and dot; for Archicad ensure both the resident bridge and the add-on are present; restart the host if the bridge was just installed.

Host running but not responding ("not ready")

Cause: the host is still starting, a dialog is open, or it is mid-command.

Fix: wait briefly and retry — the signal is recoverable by design, and no write is ever applied when it appears. Dismiss any open dialog. On slow machines an administrator can raise the pickup grace period.

A write was rejected

Cause: the execution mode is Read only, a company policy overrides it, block-deletes is active, the target category is denied, or (Archicad) a preview was requested, which Archicad can't do.

Fix: set the mode to Allow changes (or Preview for Revit/Rhino) in the Hub; for Archicad use Allow changes; contact IT if a company policy is blocking it.

Archicad writes or project identity fail

Cause: the native add-on isn't loaded.

Fix: ensure the add-on is installed in the Archicad 29 Add-Ons folder and restart Archicad. Reads still work without it.

openBIM: "no model open" or file not found

Cause: a tool was called before a file was opened, or the path was wrong.

Fix: open an IFC file with an absolute path first; a ping or document list confirms what is loaded and its schema. Opening a new file replaces the previous one.

openBIM: BCF write refused, or "no BCF open"

Cause: a BCF call before a container was opened or created, or a BCF save / validate-to-BCF run while in Read only or Preview mode.

Fix: open or create a BCF container first. BCF writes aren't previewable — set the mode to Allow changes. To validate straight to BCF, open the IFC model first.

openBIM: newest authoring tools not visible in the client

Cause: the AI client is running against an older copy of the installed connector.

Fix: refresh the installed Archi Automate connector and reconnect the client. The newest IFC and BCF authoring tools are built and verified, but a client must reconnect to see them.

Limitations

  • Archi Automate does not save models after a write — you save manually.
  • Code-safety screening (Revit / Rhino / IFC) is defence-in-depth, not a true sandbox.
  • Archicad has no write preview; writes apply directly in Allow-changes mode and live until you save.
  • Cross-program work is orchestrated by the AI in the conversation — there is no automatic background sync between applications.
  • openBIM is file-based: you work on the in-memory model (or federation) and save. The assistant can render still snapshots and export glTF, but there is no live, continuous 3D viewport like the desktop hosts.
  • Geometry-dependent tools (snapshots, clash detection, quantity take-off, carbon, glTF) need a model that carries geometry; a data-only IFC returns a clear message instead.
  • Federated models must share a common world origin — federation does not re-georeference them.
  • Embodied-carbon figures are estimates with an honest coverage report, not a certified LCA; EPD-grade results use the live Ökobaudat source (online), with graceful fallback offline.
  • openBIM file-writing tools (saving IFC, COBie/glTF export, and all BCF writes) are not previewable and require Allow-changes mode; openBIM model edits do support an exact dry-run.
  • AI-generated operation quality depends on the model tier — Claude Opus 4.8 (High) and GPT-5.5 (High) are the recommended minimums.